Pirated Scraps of Humanity

Journal Entry 32237 : Day 29

Something broke yesterday. Something hidden deep inside my mind, in a far off area I didn’t even know existed. I felt it twisted for a while now, its curious ethereal weight a constant yet gentle nudge at the back of my all too cluttered mind. I had ignored it until finally it broke from the strain, raining discordant strings of shattered notes across my fevered brain. Yet even as I lost something no doubt crucial, I felt a weight lifted from my mind. Everything is so clear now; there is no more doubt or worry. The pirates did more good than harm when they broke me, whether they know it or not. I think I know what they broke: my sanity; and as my growing insanity slowly takes over they will rue the day they ever tampered with my being. As they die one by one by my hands, the last thing they see will be my sadistic grin, and as a collective they will shudder, for them and only them will know the horror they have unleashed.

As they die my name will be all too clear on their minds: Tejed Jenal, experiment # 11056, Project Transfuse, the Phantom Berserker; their hunter, their torturer, their executioner, and their very own angel of death.

Once again Tejed found herself out in the vastness of space, nothing to keep her company but the stars and her voice, cracked and distorted as it was. Her helmet lay on the floor by the command chair, leaving her long white hair and crinked antennae piled on the floor.

“…a pirate’s head. That’s what I’m getting for this ship, a pirate’s head. I will mount it right…there!” She pointed disdainfully to the nose cone of the ship and smirked. “I’ll keep it glued there with its own blood, a reminder to anyone who dares cross me.” She prepared to spit, realized that wasn’t a good idea, and instead swallowed it. Pausing, Tejed glanced out the window to her left, catching sight of her reflection in the process.

“I was talking to myself again, wasn’t I?” The ship groaned in response and with a sigh she turned back to the front. “I have to stop that. It’s turning into a really bad habit. What happens if someone catches me? They’ll think I’m insane…and in telling myself not to talk to myself I just talked to myself.” Silence filled the cramped vessel. Without thinking Tejed unconsciously reached for the reports and began reading aloud.

“Somewhere in the region of Proxima Centari…space pirate frigate, theorized to be nought but a cargo vessel.” She put away the reports and closed her eyes as she leaned back, plunging the tiny ship into darkness as she did so.

“Cargo vessel means nothing. Space pirates is space pirates and that’s the end of that.” Once again the old hatred sparked itself but just as quickly died. As much as she hated the space pirates now was not a time to get all riled up over them. She opened her eyes once more, their dull yellow glow lighting the ship again. Outside the stars shone brightly, a stark reminder of her insignificance.

“I never did like space all that much,” she muttered with a sneer. “Make me feel small. Damn it, this is taking forever! Why didn’t I spend some credits on a hyper drive or something? It’s like plodding through space with a turtle for an engine.” She chuckled at her words before becoming silent again. The scanners beeped silently and Tejed peered ahead. A blackness different than the blackness of space presented itself, a deep pool of dark where no stars shone, and Tejed knew she had finally arrived. A sadistic grin had unknowingly spread across her face.

“There you are,” she whispered. If she wasn’t alone, her occupant would’ve blanched at her words. Laden heavily with anger and hate, there was an undercurrent of sadistic glee to her voice, undercurrents that went unnoticed to their speaker, engrossed as she was in the ship that had appeared. And yet it was because she was alone that the words held so much force, and as she put on her helmet and once again entered the mindset of a hunter the pirate vessel grew in size until it filled every window on the ship.

The blackened metal of the frigate shone like hardened tar as Tejed docked. Finally, revenge, if only but a part. She rose from the command chair and spread her arms in perverse greeting as the door to the ship opened, and the maniacal look etched into her features boarded the frigate.

“Your loyal experiment has returned,” she crooned. “And boy, is she pissed.” The only welcome she got was a low groan and a sharp creak. And she entered the ship alone, the darkness swallowing her in an almost loving way.

Far behind, far off in space and closing in fast, a ship not unlike Tejed’s approached. Without hesitation it docked by Tejed’s. It’s sleek black body was not that different from the metal of the frigate, and with a stealthy ness only used by predators and followers, its two occupants entered the frigate as well.

The frigate was silent in its bubble of space, even as its multiple intruders sought to reap nothing short of havoc unto its crew. It creaked, it groaned, and above all else, it wailed.

~*~

If anything the frigate was just as depressing on the inside as it was on the outside. It seemed to Tejed that pirate ships had a really bad habit of appearing as derelict pieces of scrap metal, and the more she explored this particular vessel the more appropriate that seemed. They did little to no maintenance work on the things and they didn’t even seem to care half the time. It was a wonder the things could even propel themselves forwards, let alone sustain a breathable atmosphere.

“I wonder how they even get anything done in this hell hole.” Despite being nought but a whisper her voice echoed throughout the vessel, reverberating off the walls and quickly growing in volume. She flinched slightly ay her careless mistake then continued walking. Everything seemed so loud as she walked, from the restless creaks of the frigate to the continuous and almost maddening sound of liquid, somewhere, gently dripping; Tejed was merely amazed the sound of her armoured feet didn’t draw any pirates like flies to a carcass.

Gradually the ramshackle hallways of the ship gave way to badly lit but somewhat cleaner corridors, and those in turn slowly changed to brightly lit halls crowded by doors to each side. Something about the sterility of these particular corridors set off a series of memories, and before Tejed knew it she had unwillingly gone back in time.

Consciousness was still far off, nothing but a pleasant memory in a cloudy world of black mist. Yet the world of the waking does not hold as many pleasures as initially thought, and as Tejed slipped from blissful unconsciousness into bitter reality the truth struck her like a brick. Two space pirates hovered above her. One had a gun like saw in his claw, the blade a neon streak of red. The other was gently probing a needle under the skin of her arm, a glowing blue substance travelling with frustrating slowness down the tube it was connected to.

They didn’t realize that she was awake, that or they didn’t care, for they talked to each other languidly, an indifferent tone in their harsh voices. The blue liquid reached her skin and burned like acid as it entered her system. Yet no matter how hard Tejed tried she could not scream, she could not move, and she could not cease the unending pain.

If this is what death is like, she thought, then wake me up. Please, somebody, wake me up. A tear squeezed out of her eye but the pirates did not notice. It was then that the walls caught her attention: bright, almost unbearable white against the chitinous black of the space pirates. It was almost like some bizarre hospital, only instead of chemicals and steel the air smelled of death and decay.

Tejed came back to the present with a racing heart and fast paced breaths bordering on hyperventilation. It was all she could do to keep from retching right there, and a metallic taste kept creeping into her mouth. All too quickly the vague nausea subsided, and body still trembling Tejed entered the nearest room.

It was almost like walking into a memory. The white washed walls, though distinctly alien, gave off an unmistakable vibe of research and experimentation. The metallic taste crept back as she scanned the room, eyes coming to a rest on a computer terminal against the far wall. She fought down the sour flavour as she approached it. The room was strangely hushed as she accessed the computer’s system, as though something was going to pop out at any moment and scream like some deranged animal. Tejed pushed the unnerving feeling to the back of her mind and continued to scour the contents of the machine, looking for any clue as to her history with the pirates.

“It’s all garbled junk,” she whispered, recognition dawning. The pirates had coded their system in such a way that any outsider reading it would get nothing but, well, garbled junk, and since Tejed didn’t know didly-squat about hacking into things she was at a loss. She stared at the flickering screen dully before turning back towards the doorway.

“Worthless. I better return to my ship, then. Contact, HQ, tell them th-” A head splitting alarm started up, quickly cutting off all of Tejed’s thoughts. She brought her hands to her head and glared up at the flashing red lights. Her little jaunt into pirate systems must have activated the alarm, and no sooner had she thought that than she was alerted by the sound of heavy footfalls, the room soon filling with all manner of pirates. One of them saw her and motioned to the rest, his shattered voice filling the air with malice. Tejed swore under her breath.

“Of all the things that could’ve happened, of all the times.” She glared up at the ceiling, searching in vain for whatever higher being thought it would be funny to put her in this position, and shook her fist before turning her attention back to the pirates.

They seemed to recognize her, namely her suit, for they hung back a second before one of them broke the ranks and ran forward, and like a screaming gargling wave of death the pirates advanced, the old allegory ‘strength in numbers’ seeming ludicrously redundant. Tejed only had time to swear once before they engulfed her, and just as she was beginning to lose consciousness the old failsafe switched off, and she opened her eyes.

“You’re all dead,” she whispered. Somehow, despite being in the middle of a pirate fuelled brawl she was falling, slipping backwards into a part of her mind previously locked, a strange place where she could watch the chaos from afar and oddly not care. A new part of her mind resurfaced and took center stage. No longer was the timid and blunt Tejed at the wheel, now the Tejed who relished the thrill of the hunt of the smell of death was at the wheel, the Tejed who enjoyed mindless killing and mass murder, the Tejed with no emotions save hatred, loathing, and a deep, primal joy at watching things die.

“You’re all dead!” Her voice boomed out, a low bass roar that set everything that wasn’t bolted down trembling. Somewhere across the room a phial shattered, and as one, the pirates looked up.

Raw power coursed through Tejed’s muscles, a power that vied to be free, and in Tejed’s new mindset nothing said free the power quite like bashing in a couple hundred pirate skulls. Without warning she lurched forward, a previously unknown chain saw springing to life on her right arm. It cut through the closest pirate like he wasn’t even there, thick green blood spraying through the air and all over Tejed’s visor. With an animalistic growl she ripped it free and looked around, her eyes seeing nothing but red. She cackled in a maniacal fit of glee and without a second thought plunged into the sea of pirates.

It wasn’t just Tejed’s mind that had changed, oh no, it was far more than that. Her physical body had changed as well, as if it knew this would happen and willingly transformed to accommodate its new operator. Her senses were greatly heightened, for she could hear every beat of their frantic hearts, smell the sickly sweat scent of perspiration, feel the subtle changes in air pressure as muffled shots flew by. And yet, as exhilarating as this new aspect was, there was something missing, something crucial to survival, and right off the bat Tejed knew what it was. Her sanity, discarded like some five cent trinket. She was angry, she was happy, and she was out of control. And even as the blood flew she did not care.

~*~

“You just had to set off that alarm, didn’t you?” Gin winced slightly at the robot’s words. He had not meant to trip any alarm, it had happened when he tried accessing the ships computer systems and failed miserably. He hoped he hadn’t jeopardized Tejed’s cover in doing so, but even he felt she was toast. Behind him the robot gave an audible sigh, his polished camera eye reflecting what little light there was in this place.

“I really don’t know why you insist on following him. Seriously, have you seen his suit? The guy knows what he’s doing.”

“It’s only his fourth bounty. I want to make sure he doesn’t kill himself.” Another sigh.

“I say we go home and forget this ever happened.” Gin turned to look at the robot, a look of exasperation upon his tanned face.

“And why is that, Hackbot?” If the robot could have smiled sheepishly he would have. Instead he merely shrugged and replied in an indifferent tone.

“I’m a coward, you said so yourself. I’m allergic to violence.” Gin shook his head and continued down the hall. Somewhere deep down in the bowels of the ship came a muffled cry, then all was silent. Because of the intricate duct system on the frigate Gin couldn’t make out its source; it seemed to come from all directions at once.

“You’re too nice, that’s your problem. I know a million other hunters who wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about some newbie and here we are, sneaking through a pirate frigate, trying to find someone who’s probably not even here anymore.” Hackbot shuddered slightly and glared at his current employer’s back. “The only reason I don’t leave is because you pay me so much. I swear, if there weren’t so many credits invol-”

“Shut up.” Hackbot abruptly ceased his babbling. He may have been a coward but he knew when to stop. Gin held his ear to a wall, a look of concentration on his face. He glanced at Hackbot, who merely gave him a look of puzzled boredom. After a moment Gin pulled his head away.

“What was it?” inquired Hackbot idly. He didn’t really care, but he felt obliged to ask.

“I thought…” Gin trailed off. “I thought…I thought I heard something.”

“Nothing here but space vermin and dust.” The lithe robot slid a finger across the wall and grimaced. “Do space pirates ever clean? Seriously, there’s at least a foot of dust in here.” Gin smirked at his exaggeration and peered down the hall. He could have sworn he heard something, but now the halls resonated dim silence. Whatever it was had sounded like deranged laughter intermingled with screams. Gin turned back to Hackbot, a hopeless look on his face.

“You’re right, let’s go back to the ship. He doesn’t need ou-” Without warning the wall Gin had been listening at mere seconds earlier seemingly exploded, a thick cloud of dust and debris filling the air.

“See? I told you this place was dusty.” Gin ignored the smart ass remark, all his attention focused on the cloud of dust, and the hulking figure that came through.

For all the world it resembled a space pirate, a hideous creation no doubt one of their ghoulish experiments, pumped up on phazon and with a temperament to match. Its shining yellow eyes peered out from deep set sockets, and even as the snap of a pirate spine radiated throughout the halls the eyes showed nothing but joy and hate. Hate and joy. A pure primal joy that can only come from deep animalistic hate.

“We have to get out of here!” yelled Hackbot, a hand clamped on Gin’s shoulder. Gin came back to reality, and realized for the first time the amount of chaos the creature was causing. Dead pirate bodies lay all around and even as he watched another’s head was crushed by the creature’s hand. Without a second thought he and Hackbot rushed out of harm’s way and watched the gory scene from around a wall.

“I told you this wasn’t a good idea!” complained Hackbot. “That…that thing out there probably killed Tejed! Ripped his head right from his body like it’s doing with those pirates.” For the moment Gin was inclined to agree. And yet the way it composed itself, the way it ripped through its own people with such obvious fury set it apart from a mere monster, a pirate experiment gone horrendously wrong. And suddenly Gin saw that oh so familiar suit, and piece by piece it started to come together.

“Shit, I think that is Tejed.” She whirled around at the sound of his voice, spent pirate bodies littering the floor like some sort of grotesque confetti. Her breathing was low and ragged, like a predator when it smells its prey. Gin and Hackbot ducked back around the wall, but sight was a little issue for Tejed. Hackbot’s steel and alloy body smelled thin and unnatural, with a hint of pungent oil, while Gin smelled of sweat and fear. She took a heavy step towards them, steel and concrete cracking slightly under her weight.

“This is bad,” whispered Hackbot. “Very, very bad.”

“State the obvious, why don’t you.” Tejed whipped around the corner and before Gin could blink had him against the wall. Her claws dug sharply into his neck, drawing thin beads of blood in the process. They contrasted sharply with the dull green splattered all over her suit, and Gin couldn’t help but gag at her blood splattered face. A thick gob of spittle fell from the corner of her frothy mouth.

“Come on, you know me! I’m-” She snapped at him like an angry dog and grinned sadistically. A high pitched shriek sputtered to life and in growing horror Gin realized her chain saw was slowly advancing towards his head. A shower of sparks flew in the corner of his eye, the teeth of the saw biting into the hard steel like nothing was even there.

“Calm down, Tejed. I’m here to help.” Tejed merely blinked once at the spoken name. The shriek of the saw ceased as the teeth came to a stop. Gin jumped on this chance.

“It’s me, Gin. Gin Phoenix. Put me down, please.” Tejed’s eyes dimmed and her expression softened, though the hard edge remained. She dropped Gin to the floor and turned away. Already the power was draining, her vision and senses returning to their previous states. She was in control once again, though for how long was anyone’s guess. She felt eyes boring into her back and turned. Gin and Hackbot were staring at her, unsure of whether she would flip out again or not. If only everything was that simple.

“What are you staring at?” she spat.

“Nothing! I…”

“You what?” she growled. “You’ve never seen a repulsive hybrid of space pirate and human? Lucky you, because until I woke up months ago, neither had I.” She navigated through the sea of bodies, feet squishing against their fresh corpses. The air smelled of steel and death. She did not care, nor did she even really notice. Her helmet lay glinting back in that sterile room, and bending she picked it up. She scowled at her reflection in the visor before slipping the helmet back on. And amid all the chaos, strangely clean at the back of the room, the computer terminal lay untouched.

“Need any help?” Gin and Hackbot had followed her. Gin’s voice, though thick with residual fear, still held its kind tones, and Tejed didn’t know whether to hate it or be grateful for it. Without answering she walked towards the terminal.

“I can’t access their systems, they have it coded and I’m not a hacker.” Hackbot perked up at her words.

“I can do it! For a price…” Gin elbowed him in the side.

“Not now, just do it, already.” Grumbling about not getting paid enough the robot approached the terminal and started clacking away at the keyboard. A few seconds later he turned away triumphantly, the screen filling with legible pirate, only to be pushed roughly aside by Tejed. She stared at the words, mumbling under her breath. Gin peered over her shoulder but only saw gibberish.

“You can read that?”

“I’m more than half pirate, what do you expect?” He seemed taken aback by her blunt remark but didn’t complain. Tejed glared at him before turning back to the screen.

“It says they have some sort of huge experiment going down, something code named O.M.M.R.” Gin perked up and came forward. “That’s about it, though. The rest is miscellaneous scientific rambling.” She stepped back thoughtfully. Though she hadn’t found what she came here for, namely, anything to do with her or human experimentation, what she did find was just as intriguing. Something with a code name like that, that was so vague even other pirates didn’t know what it was, had to be big, dangerous, even. She had to alert the Federation.

Without saying anything she promptly strode from the room and headed back to her ship. Gin and Hackbot struggled to follow, though the robot made it clear by his constant whining he didn’t want anything to do with this.

“Wait! Where are you going now?” Tejed stopped at her ship and looked back at Gin.

“Federation HQ.” She made to get on but was stopped again. Annoyance fluttering on her mind she turned again.

“If you’re going, at least let us follow?” Tejed gave a mental sigh and nodded once, boarding her ship before the other bounty hunter could stop her again.

The comforting darkness of her ship around once again, Tejed started the engine and lazily detached from the frigate. Beside her Gin’s ship started as well, its sleek black shape so different from her clunky silver ship. And yet, even as she was swallowed in calming silence that usually sparked inane ramblings, she stayed quiet, mind heavy with questions and musings.

She had not just lost control, she had gone into a raging fury. She had gone berserk, and she didn’t just like it. She had loved it.